I have Scrivener on my desktop PC at home, and am considering a Windows tablet. However, there are times I’d like to work on my projects when I can’t use my computer or tablet. For example, lunch-time at work.
I am not permitted (or able) to install any unapproved software on the computer at work, so cannot install Scrivener.
I also cannot install Dropbox or Google Drive. My experience with these is that I can only download and reupload files from Dropbox. I can edit Google Drive files in the browser via Google Docs online.
All that said . . . is there a reasonable way to use Scrivener when on a computer that doesn’t have it installed?
I imagine I could export everything to rtf and then edit via Google Docs, but then would have to bring anything edited back into Scrivener. Lots of in-and-out potential for problems with that.
Can you bring your tablet to work and connect to internet via your work networK? If so, you could use the “Alternative Method” mentioned in this article to do Scrivener work on your home PC and also on your tablet: scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb … c-services
If you can’t use your tablet at work, then I cannot think of any “good” options. If it were me, I would use the “Alternative Method” mentioned above when working at home on the PC, and when I wanted to write at work:
Download the Scrivener backup from Dropbox (from “Alternative Method”)
Find the file that I want to modify in the Scrivener backup (not trivial, due to Scrivener’s numbering system!) and copy into a new file in Google docs
Edit the new file
Save the new file
Back at home on the PC and using Scrivener, Copy Paste Match Style the Google Docs file back into the Scrivener doc. You will likely need to reformat it in Scrivener.
I think the above process is very similar to what you were referring to in your post. Whether it is reasonable or not is your call. It has a relatively low risk of breaking Scrivener, but it is laborious. The key to low risk is to never edit Scrivener files directly, when outside of Scrivener.
You can use File > Export in Scrivener to create external copies of any selected documents, which you could save to a portable drive and access from your work computer. Assuming it’s not against code to do personal work on the machine during your break hours, you could then just edit the documents in whatever word processor you have there and then copy the edited documents back into Scrivener when you get home. Sorting by modified date in Windows Explorer will let you easily see which documents were edited since you last updated them in Scrivener, so the copy and paste should go pretty quickly. You can also simply import any new documents you create while at work.
